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AirPods Pro might just be Apple’s best accessory. They sound great, ship with intelligent features, and can often be found on sale. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem—even if you have just one or two other Apple products—they’re my go-to earbud recommendation.
However, they’re definitely not on the cutting edge: Apple hasn’t refreshed the AirPods Pro line since 2022, which means the earbuds you can buy today are the same you could’ve bought three years ago. Granted, the company has introduced new software features in that time, not least of which includes one that turns the earbuds into FDA-approved hearing aids, but the hardware is exactly the same. These things are due for a refresh.
And if rumors are to be believed, it’s coming during tomorrow’s “Awe Dropping” event. Alongside the iPhone 17 series, the company will likely showcase the AirPods Pro 3, the third-generation of the earbud line. While we’re probably not getting an upgrade to the AirPods Max (which were “updated” with USB-C last year), the newest AirPods Pro sound pretty cool, no pun intended.
Here’s what the leaks and rumors suggest we’re getting:
A new H3 chip
As you might expect with a refresh like this, the new AirPods Pro are likely going to include upgraded internals. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, that includes “a new chip,” and while he doesn’t confirm it, that’s almost certainly the H3. The “H-chip” is what powers Apple’s AirPods, and is responsible for intelligent features for enhancing audio, boosting the quality of your voice on calls, and Transparency Mode, to name a few. The current AirPods Pro use the H2, so it only makes sense that Apple would run with H3 for this newest pair of Pros.
Details surrounding the H3 are pretty slim, so it’s tough to say what hardware advantages this chip will have over the H2 until Apple spells them out in the keynote. That said, this H3 chip will likely power some of the new features rumored to be exclusive to the AirPods Pro 3.
Improved audio quality
This won’t come as a shock, but AirPods Pro 3 will likely sound better than AirPods Pro 2. We don’t have a ton of details on how much Apple improved the sound this time, but I imagine the H3 chip will play a big part in it. MacRumors also believes Apple is improving Active Noise Cancellation with the third-gen AirPods Pro, so the earbuds should work even better in loud environments.
Heart rate monitor
Back in February, Apple released the Beats-branded Powerbeats Pro 2. These earbuds are priced the same as the AirPods Pro 2, but come with some unique features. There are the “earhooks,” which help keep the buds in your ears when working out, but there’s also something a bit more technically impressive: heart rate monitors.
Apple outfitted these buds with sensors to track your heart rate while in use, as if you had tiny Apple Watches in your ears. It’s neat, and makes sense for a product designed for exercise. If you don’t use a fitness tracker, your earbuds can help you more accurately track your workouts.
Naturally, you’d expect Apple would bring such a technology to its flagship earbud line, and if the rumors are correct, they will: Back in December, Gurman reported Apple was working on building both heart rate and temperature sensors into AirPods Pro 3. Reportedly, the experience is still more accurate on Apple Watch, but “the earbuds aren’t terribly far off.”
A slight redesign
AirPods Pro 3 might not look that much different than AirPods Pro 2 at first glance, but rumors suggest they will be slightly different. One leaker suggests that the charging case could be smaller this go around, while the button on the back of the case could be replaced by a capacitive button on the front. That would mirror the same design as the AirPods 4, so I expect Apple will almost certainly follow through on this one.
Apple is still working on adding cameras and “air gestures”
It might sound farfetched, but it does seem like Apple is working on adding cameras to its earbuds. Gurman thinks the end goal is to help power some of the company’s AI features, a space Apple has struggled to compete in these past few years.
That said, Gurman doesn’t expect to see these cameras on AirPods Pro 3. In fact, he says the tech won’t hit AirPods for at least a couple more years, if at all. He’s slightly contradicted by a new rumor that suggests Apple will release two AirPods Pro 3 models: One without the cameras, which will drop this year, and another with the cameras, which will come out next year.
The rumor also says that Apple could replace the AirPods’ squeeze function with air gestures. Instead of pushing on the stem to pause music, for example, the cameras would look for your hand movements. I’m not so sure Apple will announce a second AirPods Pro 3, or mention camera integration at all at this point, but it is worth mentioning.
